The interdepartmental commission will meet next week to find out how religious organizations use state property, in particular in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, Minister of Culture and Information Policy Oleksandr Tkachenko said on the air of the telethon.

He recalled that in 2013, under the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych, an agreement was signed on the indefinite lease of the Lower Lavra by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.

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At the same time, the government of Mykola Azarov entered into an agreement with the UOC-MP on the lease of the Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra for 49 years..

“The Svyatogorsk Lavra is part of the Donetsk Regional Administration, and there, accordingly, a different decision. As far as I remember, there is also an indefinite lease or use,” the minister explained..

Tkachenko noted that in each specific case it is necessary to “make civilized European, transparent decisions”, recalling, in particular, the refusal to extend the agreement on the use of the Assumption Cathedral and the Refectory Church of the Upper Lavra.

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Recall, on January 5, Minister of Culture Oleksandr Tkachenko announced that the Commission of the Ministry of Culture had completed work on the acceptance and transfer of the Assumption Cathedral and the Refectory Church from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate on the territory of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra reserve to the state.

At the same time, Metropolitan Pavel (Lebed), who was supposed to sign the Act, did not appear at the last meeting of the commission. The Primate of the OCU, Metropolitan Epiphanius, on January 7, held a divine service for the first time in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.

On the eve of the rector of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Epiphanius said that the OCU claims to permanently use the churches of the Upper Lavra. Whether it will be the Assumption Cathedral or the Refectory Church, the state must decide, although the OCU is ready to take both churches for use.